"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. "And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. "And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. "And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. "And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. "And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. "And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way."—Mark 10:46-52.

The subject this morning is not one that is unfamiliar by any stretch of the imagination, because you have heard it discussed many times, I’m sure. It is the cry of the unsaved in these verses I have just read in Mark 10.

Now I don’t want any of you to get the idea that this preacher believes, as the modern world believes, that an alien sinner must plead with God in order to be saved. I don’t believe that and this lesson doesn’t teach that. I cut my teeth on that doctrine, and when I was a boy preacher I used what is known as "The Mourner’s Bench" in a modified form. I got to the place where I thought if a man were ever to find the Lord, he would surely find Him there. I thought my predecessors knew much more than I, and I had no right to disagree with them. But after seeing the failure of the use of it, I began to study the Word of God concerning this and came to the conclusion that this practice was without Scriptural foundation and completely foreign to the Word of God. It was no where to be found in the Bible.

I launched my study in another direction, and the course led me far from the accepted position of many of my colleagues. In my investigation of the everlasting Word of God, I began to recognize this one specific and definite fact: God says for the LOST to BELIEVE. They are not to plead with God to save them; they are to BELIEVE. "Whosoever believeth on me hath everlasting life." I believe that.

I want you to notice a number of things, perhaps you have already noticed them, perhaps not. But notice some things that are clearly set forth in these remarkable verses. Jesus went IN Jericho and He went OUT of Jericho. In the text before us there are two things about the ministry of Jesus. One was that He entered Jericho and always the Scriptures quickly add, "He went OUT of Jericho." It is an astounding fact. In Luke 19:1, 2, notice that Jesus entered Jericho and went OUT of Jericho. You recall, of course, that on that occasion Zaccheus was gloriously saved.

It has been said by men who have studied both profane and religious history that there never was a city more wicked, debased and profane than Jericho during the days of the ministry of Jesus. But if Jericho was wicked, ungodly, sinful and ugly that was NOT the reason that Jesus only entered and quickly passed through: because He CAME to the ungodly.

You might ask me: "Brother Cox, why then DID Jesus enter and quickly pass through?"

I don’t know; we are not told, but suffice it to say that on these two occasions men found the Lord, salvation was given to three different men on two occasions. For example, the Gospel of Matthew recording the same incident in the life of Jesus, speaks of two lepers who were beggars. There is no contradiction in what Matthew and Mark had to say. Matthew is recording the fact that there were two men on the highway side begging, while Mark is dealing with the CRY of one and that Jesus helped him; therefore, Mark is dealing with the SPIRITUAL aspect and subsequent events of this visit.

Notice He came to Jericho, and He went out of Jericho. Here was a blind man sitting on the highway side and the Scriptures say he was begging. But the thing I want you to get, first, last and always, is that he was BLIND. This to me teaches every lost man in the world is BLIND. He is SPIRITUALLY blind, blind to the truth of God’s Word, spiritually blind.

You might ask me this evening: "WHY are the lost blind? Why has the shade been pulled? Why are they blind to the truth of God’s Word?"

The DEVIL has blinded them, that’s WHY.

Then you might ask me: "Why has he blinded them, why have they permitted him to blind their hearts and minds?"

Because they are his CHILDREN, that’s WHY.

You know, I have never believed in that rotten, devilish doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Beloved, I believe with all my heart if it had not been for the propagation of this hellish doctrine we would not be faced with the issue of integration. I believe that with all my heart. The "do-gooders" are constantly saying that all men are brothers and God is the Father of all of us. I have searched the Bible from cover to cover and I have never found the slightest inference that God is the spiritual Father of anybody save those that have been born of the Spirit of God.

In John 8:44, notice that Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Ye are of your FATHER the DEVIL, and the lusts of your FATHER ye will do."

Notice this: they were very devout and religious, yet Jesus pointed the finger of accusation at them when they claimed God as their Father and said, "Ye are of your father the devil

Then you might ask me: "Why is it? Why will people let the Devil blind their hearts and minds?"

Romans 9:8: "The children of the FLESH, these are NOT the children of God . . ." And in Matthew 13, the parable of the tares and wheat, Jesus in this exposition of that parable said, "The tares are the children of the wicked one." Therefore, the DEVIL has a family upon the earth.

The Apostle Paul, speaking to the Ephesian brethren concerning their spiritual condition prior to their conversion said, "And you hath he quickened (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by NATURE the children of WRATH, even as others" (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3).

Paul said that the Ephesian brethren, prior to their conversion, were by NATURE the children of wrath; therefore, that is WHY men permit the Devil to blind their hearts, minds and eyes.

I heard a man say one time—and I am inclined to believe it— "You know WHY men go to Hell? They go there because their DADDY is there and they want to go home to be with their daddy."

What was he talking about? Was he talking about their natural father? No, he was talking about their SPIRITUAL father, the Devil. He didn’t have any reference to the natural father but the spiritual father. Men die and go to Hell because their daddy is there. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Therefore, men permit the Devil to blind their eyes because they are the children of the Devil.

In 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 the Apostle Paul said, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

The DEVIL has blinded their hearts; that’s why they are blinded.

I’ll go further and say that in the New Testament, especially, LEPROSY stands for—though people actually had leprosy—or represents the sinfulness of the human heart. There MUST be a spiritual application: it represents the utter loathsome condition of the human heart. PARALYSIS always represents the inability of man to save himself; and BLINDNESS always represents blindness on the part of the unbeliever. Bartimaeus was BLIND.

And the second thing I want you to notice: he was BEGGING. Now for WHAT was he begging? He was begging for that which sustains the BODY; that which keeps body and soul together. He was begging for food for his PHYSICAL body. I imagine he was sitting there and every time someone came along he would hear the footsteps and would cry out to them for aid, for assistance.

Beloved, every lost man in the world is a BEGGAR in the sight of God. It makes no difference how RICH he may be in material things; it doesn’t make any difference how much WEALTH he may possess, if he is without the Lord, he is a spiritual beggar.

But I want everyone to know that the child of GOD is RICH. He may not be rich in material things; he may live in a shack in the cotton field; he may be destitute of wealth as far as material things go, but if he is the Lord’s he is rich. He is rich not in houses and land but in the fact of his relationship with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4:8, the Apostle Paul said, "NOW ye are full, now ye are RICH, ye have reigned as kings . . ."

Now I went you to notice "he heard." Get that word "heard." When he HEARD that Jesus of Nazareth was passing that way, when he "heard." Now I have sense enough to know that whoever told him was not preaching a Gospel message; I know that he only heard that Jesus, the wonder Man of the age, was passing through. But let me ask you this: would it be doing violence to the Word of Cod to put a spiritual application to the word HEARD? Certainly not. "When he heard that Jesus was to pass that way," when he heard. Someone had told him that Jesus was coming that way. Just like everybody that has ever been saved, be heard about Jesus Christ.

I believe the Gospel should be preached to every creature in the world. In Mark 16:15, 16 Jesus said to His church, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Jesus said, "Preach the Gospel." And in Matthew 28:19, 20, He says to tell the Gospel to every nation of the earth. Tell everybody about JESUS.

You might ask me, "What is the GOSPEL?"

Did you know that you can preach the Word of God without preaching the Gospel? It took me a long time to learn that fundamental truth. In 1 Corinthians 1:1-4 we are told what the Gospel actually is: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel . .

What IS the Gospel, Paul? "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

"The DEATH, BURIAL and RESURRECTION of Jesus for our sins is the GOSPEL," said Paul. You see? Preach the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for our sins: that is the Gospel.

I am going further and say, "There won’t be a soul saved in this dispensation separate and apart from the hearing of the Gospel."

"What are you saying, Brother Cox? Do you mean that the heathen who have never heard about Jesus will die and go to Hell?"

That is exactly what I am saying. I never have believed that God has two ways of saving people, one through the KNOWLEDGE of the truth and the other through IGNORANCE. Get this: suppose we assume the Lord is going to save the heathen without the hearing of the Gospel, then we do them a grave injustice when we send the Gospel to them because they are safe if left alone, but if we send the Gospel to them some of them are going to rebel against it and we are going to be responsible for them going to Hell--IF God saves some because of their ignorance.

I don’t believe that. Men are going to Hell because they are SINNERS. The heathen is a sinner whether or not he ever hears the Gospel; he is a sinner because he is a son of ADAM, and in Adam all sinned (Rom. 5:19, "for as by one man’s disobedience, many were made SINNERS."). Therefore, the heathen is a sinner whether or not he ever hears of Christ, and sin must be punished by the justice of God. I say again that in this dispensation not one soul shall be saved without first hearing the Gospel.

Then I want you to get this: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."—Romans 10:13. That has been used, hasn’t it? People will quote that verse and forget about the 14th verse, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not BELIEVED? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not HEARD? and how shall they HEAR without a preacher?" And in the 17th verse: "So then FAITH cometh by HEARING, and hearing by the word of God." Faith comes HOW? "By hearing the Word of God."

God uses two agents in the conviction and conversion of a sinner: the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent and the Word of God is the instrument.

Some people get the idea that the Gospel isn’t necessary and that we are just wasting money when we send the Gospel to the heathen nations, but Paul said it was: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the WORD of God." The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel in the begetting of men to new life in Christ Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 4:15, notice the Apostle Paul said, "For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have BEGOTTEN you through the gospel."

Paul said that you may have ten thousand instructors to tell you something about Jesus, but you don’t have many fathers because "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." Therefore, the preaching of the Gospel is necessary. The man HEARD that Jesus was passing through. May we always dedicate our lives to seeing that men HEAR about the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the thing that is needed.

Then the third thing that I want you to notice: "He began to say to Jesus, Thou son of David . . ." Now you notice that he didn’t address Him as "Lord," but he addressed Him as "Thou son of David." He was only applying it to the Kingship of Jesus in that expression "thou son of David have mercy on me." He was not thinking of the Divinity of Christ at all, only the power associated with being king. He is not thinking of the Lordship of Jesus, but the kingship of Jesus.

Next I want you to notice what the church was doing— "What do you mean? Do you mean the church was there?"

I most assuredly mean just that. The church was there; Jesus had it with Him. They went here, there and everywhere. They were a going church: Jesus had it with Him. Notice the Bible distinguishes between the disciples of Jesus and the multitudes of people in Mark 10. The church said, "You are disturbing us; you are upsetting the apple cart." When the blind man cried after Jesus, the disciples rebuked him, but Jesus when He knew what the man was doing, stood still and said, "Call him, send him here."

You know that a church can make mistakes. For example, I know of a church that has the anathema of God upon it because of what they did to an eight-year-old boy many years ago. This church was holding a revival and an eight-year-old boy came down the aisle trusting the Lord and wanting to unite with the Lord’s church. The preacher looked at him and thought, "I don’t know if the church will do anything about this or not."

Two or three of the "good sisters" went to the boy and said to him, "You are too young"—I want you to get this now— "You are too young to know what you are talking about; you can not know anything about Jesus."

The boy said, "I do. I DO. The man preached it simply; I am saved and I want to get in the Lord’s church."

But they rebuffed and rebuked him, and he wasn’t accepted. Years later I talked to this man, and I asked him if this really happened. He said, "Yes, it is true, and you know this thing that happened to me nearly ruined my life. I know that I should go somewhere to the church of the Lord and be baptized, not because I think that it is essential to salvation, but because I am a child of GOD. But I don’t desire to go to church. Every time I go to church I think of those hypocritical, sanctimonious women who turned me back and said I didn’t have sense enough to know what I was doing, that I didn’t have sense enough to believe in Jesus."

As far as I know, he has never become identified with the Lord’s church, living out of it. And that is what these were doing when the blind man was crying after Jesus. They rebuked him, but finally Jesus stood still and said, "Come here." And the man laid aside his dirty, filthy, tattered rags and came to Jesus.

To me this represents a man’s own filthy rags of self-righteousness. The man recognized his OWN righteousness, or self-righteousness, availed nothing. Before a man can be saved he MUST realize his own works and self-righteousness are as filthy rags in the sight of God, and that "nothing in his hands he brings, simply to the cross to cling."

This brings us to the subject of REPENTANCE. What is repentance? The repentance of a Sinner is repentance from DEAD works. WHO has DEAD WORKS? A DEAD SINNER, and he must change his mind about self-righteousness and come to Jesus to be saved. He must repent of dead works, lay aside his own self-righteous, filthy, dirty robes and come to Jesus.

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags . . ." (Isa. 64:6).

All our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God, and, brother, when the light of God’s grace and truth hits the robes of self-righteousness of unbelievers it pierces them, tearing them to shreds, and he becomes filthy in the light of God’s truth.

Blind Bartimaeus laid aside his robes and came to Jesus and stood in the presence of the Lord. And what did he SAY? No longer was Jesus the "Son of David," no longer, for Jesus had become his LORD. And Jesus said unto him, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" And he said, "Lord, that I might receive my sight."

I tell you he was SAVED: he was a child of God the very MOMENT he got up, for Jesus CALLED him to Him, and he addressed Jesus as "Lord," and "No man can call Jesus LORD but by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).

Get the picture now. Here he was LOST, BLIND and dressed in FILTHY rags, representative of every unbeliever in the world whose mind has been BLINDED by the Devil, whose robes are dirty, filthy robes of self-RIGHTEOUSNESS: and then he HEARS the story of the redeeming love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lays aside his own filthy rags and comes to Jesus. BUT—and here is something I want you to see—just BEFORE he gets up and STARTS to Jesus, the Lord SAVES him. He hears the Lord CALL to him, and he is saved before he starts.

I want you to get this picture firmly fixed in your mind: you notice he said to Christ, previous to this, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me," but now when he walks into the presence of the Lord, no LONGER is Jesus "thou Son of David," but he calls Him "Lord." Now he recognizes the Divinity of Christ, that He is his Saviour, his Lord. It means reverent love. He said, "LORD, that I might receive my sight." He was a saved man when he said that, because he addressed Jesus as "Lord."

Then the last thing that I would have you notice in the discussion: he received his SIGHT, and "he FOLLOWED Jesus in the way." He followed Jesus. I believe that always happens when men are saved. Anything contrary to that isn’t salvation. If I didn’t believe the power of God changes men’s lives, makes them FOLLOW after Jesus, if I didn’t believe that I would not preach the Gospel. There is a difference. Everytime, everytime someone went to Jesus and was saved, that someone began to follow Jesus right then.

Now notice what happened: "He followed Jesus in the way." Just because people think they are saved doesn’t mean that they are; for Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they FOLLOW me."—John 10:27.

He didn’t say they start and then stop, but He said, "They FOLLOW me." He did not say that they MIGHT, they SHOULD, but He said they would follow Him. And this old boy followed Jesus in the way the very moment his sight was restored. In fact, the very moment Jesus saved this poor, lost, deluded soul, Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus Christ: "He followed him in the way." That is the way it has always been since the days of Jesus. When men become saved, genuinely born again children of God, they follow Jesus Christ. They do, they DO. That is the difference in the lost and the saved. The SAVED follow Jesus; the LOST don’t. There is your difference.

Now this last thought and then I am through: Just as blind Bartimaeus’ sight was restored by the power of the Lord Jesus, anyone here that is lost can have the BLINDNESS lifted from his heart and mind.

Paul talking about Israel’s blindness in the Epistle to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 3:16 said that when the heart of Israel turned to the Lord, the veil was to be lifted. You turn to the Lord— by that I mean let the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ find a lodging place in your heart—and the veil will be lifted and you will become the recipient of the power of Jesus Christ who can save, cleanse and make you whole, and you will go on your way rejoicing.

May God enable you to do that if you are without Christ. Amen.